Inclusive and Exemplary Grocers Receive Perfect Score

When choosing where to apply for a job or a place to spend those hard-earned dollars, many LGBTQ folks seek companies that promote employee equality to support. Now, looking for a spot to pick up daily essentials just got a little simpler with several grocers standing out as progressive LGBTQ allies.

A recent survey released by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which assesses corporate policies in relation to LGBTQ equality, found six grocery retailers upholding exemplary equality practices that have been give a perfect score.

According The 2019 HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) survey, Colorado grocers most committed to protecting LGBTQ rights are The Kroger Co. (King Soopers) and Walmart Inc. These, in addition to four other national chains, received the perfect 100 while others received less than favorable, such as Costco, which received a score of 60. Another leader in the perfect-score category was Amazon.com, which employs 566,000 people worldwide.

The CEI ranks companies based on equality efforts in four categories: nondiscrimination policies, employment benefits, supporting an inclusive culture and corporate social responsibility including public commitment to LGBTQ equality, and responsible citizenship, reported the Winsight Grocery Business.

In order to receive a perfect score, they said, companies were required to maintain domestic partnership benefits for both same- and different-sex couples and explicitly include LGBTQ-owned suppliers in supplier diversity programs.

Additionally, the survey stated that the number of companies that incorporated gender identity as part of their nondiscrimination policies has gone from 3 percent in 2002 to 85 percent this last year. This means that 16.8 million U.S. employees are protected from sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination by a corporate policy.